Enslaved Blossom
by Ketsueki no Kuki
Summary: She escaped slavery, going so far as jumping off a cliff into the ocean to get away. Yahiko Reime is her savior, having pulled her out of the water. He offers her to live with him, and she just might accept. May continue.


Enslaved Blossom

_Run, run. Cling to life._

This was my last thought as I ran straight off the edge of a cliff.

Even as I fell, I couldn't think. Not even my inner self- whom always has her own impute. Words wouldn't form in my head. All I heard was screaming-probably mine- and the loud roar of the wind as it pushed my hair back from the force, stinging my face.

I closed my eyes, ready for the impact of the rushing water below me. Feeling my heart pounding, but still not being able to think, I crashed into the fierce waves of the river- the might of my jump causing a blast of water to rise and slowly fall back down.

I blacked out.

Waking up, I saw the sky. A dark gray color. There were these little yellow things in it. And on my left I saw a fatter yellow-orange blob. It must be what I heard was called 'the sun'. I guess that means I was lying on my back. I tried to sit up, only to gasp in pain and lay back down on what I assumed was the ground.

"Oh good. You're awake. You shouldn't try to sit up just yet though, you were badly injured."

I… was injured? I guess that explains the pain in my back and feet.

It was then that I realized someone else was here with me. The person who had just spoken was sitting on my right side. I slowly turned my head to try and get a good look at this person.

It was boy. No younger than I was, about seventeen or eighteen. He had bright blue eyes. That was the first thing I noticed. Along with his blue eyes, he had pale white skin and short, dark orange hair that was tousled- as though he had been sleeping out in the woods for a long time.

I saw that on his left cheek, there was a faint scar, only a few shades darker than his skin. It went from the bridge of his nose diagonally down to his jaw bone.

"W-who are you?" I asked once he helped me sit up. My voice was scratchy, both from the salt water I must have inhaled and that I hadn't talked much in my life time.

"The name's Yahiko. Yahiko Reime." The boy grinned, handing me a glass of water that he had sitting next to him, which I gladly drank from.

"Thank you. My name…" I furrowed my eyebrows. There was this aching pain in the back of my head, small, but enough to let itself be known.

"My name… I-I don't remember." Frowning, I handed him the now empty glass, and looked down at my hands. They were void of any scars or scrapes, despite how much work I have done.

"You don't remember your name?" Ren looked shocked.

I shook my head.

"I must have had one when I was little, but I was never called anything but L-Z-7." I said, looking from my hands, to my feet- expecting them to be bare- as they were when I fell- but instead finding them wrapped in gauze.

"L-Z-7 huh? Well then, we should think of a real name to call you." Yahiko put a finger to his chin in deep thought as I stared at him bewilderedly.

This man was strange.

"How about Nerina? It's Italian for water." Yahiko asked me.

I shook my head. I don't like water. Nearly dying in it doesn't help.

"Okay then… what about Luzia? It's Latin for light." Once again I shake my head. Light is blinding. I don't like it.

"You're making this naming thing really hard you know." Yahiko huffed with a small glare. A look I received often.

"Alright, how's Marea. It's Latin for bitter." I returned his smirk with a blank look.

"Fine, fine. What do you think of-"

"What's that?" I asked, cutting him off.

"What's what?" Frowning, I pointed at an object I saw in the dark blue sky.

"That!" I said, my eyes trained on the silver glowing circle that was hanging in the sky. It glowed brighter than the other little white lights

"Oh. That's the moon. Hey, what about Luna?" Yahiko turned to me with another grin on his face, showing his bright white teeth that looked even whiter than those small things in the sky.

"Lu-na?" I furrowed my eyebrows in concentration. The word sounded strange coming out of my mouth.

"Yeah, Luna. It means moon in Latin. Oh! How about Sakura, it means cherry blossom in Japanese! I think it suits you, what with your green eyes and pink hair. Is that dyed by the way?" Yahiko asked, looking at my hair with a confused look.

I didn't think that pink was an unnatural color for hair. I had never seen anyone with the same hair color, but I haven't seen many people.

"My hair is not dyed. It's natural." I answered.

"Really? Cool! So… how does Sakura sound as a name for you?" Yahiko asked as he rested his hands on his knees.

"Sakura. I suppose it will work. You may call me Sakura then." I said with a nod.

"I don't want to sound rude, but what happened? I found you on the shore were the river was. Did you fall in or something?" This man sure did ask a lot of questions.

"I jumped in from a cliff. I was running away from… somewhere." I answered, using the same emotionless tone I had been using.

"Wait, you jumped? Willingly? And where were you running away from… or rather _what _were you running away from?" Again with the questions. They annoyed me so.

"Yes. I jumped willingly, ran into it actually. I was running away from someone named Denarius. I am- was- a slave, and she was my _master._" I sneered at the word. The woman was evil, few liked her, and those that did only liked her for her money and power of the city.

"I was tired of being a slave, forced to do meaningless, hard, and troubling things. Including fight." I answered.

"How did you escape?" Yahiko asked.

I suppose he was just a naturally curious person, what with all the questions. Maybe all outside humans were like this.

"While Denarius was out with one of her other slaves, I was cleaning her room when I found one of her dresses. I put the dress on, found a hat and pulled my hair into it, then used her makeup stuff. My plan was to pretend to be her and leave, she wore lot's of that makeup so I did too. I was fine until I got out the main entrance of the mansion. The guards had already seen Denarius leave, so they were suspicious of me. The wind came in and blew the hat and my hair fell down. Denarius has blonde hair, and as you can see, my hair doesn't look anything close to blonde.

The guards immediately knew I was a slave and used their swords to try and threaten me. I did the only thing I thought of, and I ran. I kept tripping over the dress to I had to tear the very ends off. Eventually, with the guards still chasing me, I came to a cliff. Before I even knew what I was doing I ran straight off it and crashed towards the water. I blacked out and here I am." I answered.

"I was wondering why your dress was like that." Ren said with a nod.

I looked down. The gray dress was torn so it ended at my knees and there were splotches of blood near the end. My blood. There were no sleeves, it wrapped around my neck instead. It was very uncomfortable.

"Well Sakura, I'm no doctor, but I did bandage up your feet and arm. They were cut pretty badly. I thought you had fainted from blood loss or a hit to the head with how much blood I saw. You didn't even wake up when I dragged you here." Yahiko grinned again.

"I've told you why I'm out here, so you tell me why you are." I asked, my voice sounding very uninterested in this whole thing, but I was.

I saw his grin drop.

"I'm out here because my family. They… well, they abandoned me. They drove me here with only one pair of extra clothes and kicked me out of the car then drove away." Yahiko frowned.

"I… am sorry." I apologized, not really knowing what to say.

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything." Yahiko was back to grinning again. It was a forced grin, I could tell. One of Denarius' friends always forced smiles and grins and such when around her.

"You can't keep living out here, so where are you going to go?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, I don't live out here. I was just playing when I saw you. I actually live with a friend of mine and his sister. You should come with me, you don't have anywhere else to go and they wont mind!" If possible, his grin grew even wider. It wasn't forced or fake anymore.

"I do not want to invade-"

"Nonsense! It'll be fine, c'mon! My car is over here." Yahiko grabbed my hand and pulled me up, walking out past the woods and over towards what I heard is called a 'road', dragging me along.

My bandaged feet hurt when they touched the ground, but it felt soft too. While I was running, I hadn't paid much attention to what it was exactly I was running _on_.

My curiosity getting the better of me, I looked down at my feet, still being dragged awkwardly. Around them I saw little green straws. This must have been what I felt that was soft.

"Yahiko. What is this green stuff?" I asked, pulling on his arm so he would stop walking. I could see the car from where I was standing, so the black stuff under it must have been the road.

"What? Oh. That's grass. Have you never been outside as a slave?" Yahiko asked once he turned to face me.

"No. I would clean when Denarius was away." I frowned. Just thinking about that mad woman made me sick.

"Well, there's a lot more that you probably don't know! I can point stuff out on the way. Now get in car and we can go!" Yahiko pulled me over to the other side of the car and opened the door, helping me in so as to not hurt my feet even more.

He shut the door and went back over to the other side and got in. He pulled out a key and put it into the car, the engine roaring to life as he drove out into the road.

I only knew what I did about cars because one of Denarius' friends told me about them all the time. I don't remember his name, but he was the only one that was nice.

"So… what kind of stuff did you eat as a slave?" Yahiko asked, trying to start a conversation.

"Most of the time, I would not eat. But when I was allowed to, all I had was the cold uneaten food that was on someone else's plate. The longest I have went without food was six days, but I was permitted to have one glass of water each day." I answered, staring out through the window.

"That explains why you're so skinny. What about showering and clothing?" Yahiko asked.

"I was allowed to shower everyday, I was Denarius' right hand. I was always kept around when she was home, so I had to be clean. Clothing… I had three pairs of the some clothes. A long sleeved gray shirt and blue jeans. Plain. Simple. Normal. There were rare occasions when Denarius would have a party, and she made me wear something more fancy. Usually a dress. Any other questions?" I sighed, starting to get annoyed.

"Do you know how long you've been a slave?" I winced at this question.

"No. I may have been born there, been a slave my whole life. Or I may have been taken away from my family. If I had a family, I'm sure they'd be dead." I frowned once more. Talking about my slave life is not easy for me. I am trying to be free, not get caught up in the past.

"Oh…" Yahiko trailed off, probably not sure what to say.

The rest of trip was silent. I asked a few questions about what things were, such as what the animals that ran past were(deer), and what the red sign was for at certain points where another road came into the road we were on. That last question led to now.

"It's a stop sign. You stop and make sure cars aren't coming before you go again. Hey, do you know how to read?" Yahiko asked. You could hardly tell his hair was orange with the lack of light, but his blue eyes stood out like sparkling sapphires in the sun.

"No. Slaves do not need to know how to learn." I answered. Now that I actually listened to my voice, I realized how cold it sounded- almost lifeless. I would have to work on that so I wont stand out too much.

"Oh… so what else do you not know?" Yahiko asked, biting his lip.

'_That sounds… mean.'_ I thought.

'_**Rude is more like it.'**_ My Inner snorted.

Inner was my inner self. Hence the name- inner. She was almost the opposite as me. Basically- I have two… people or selves inside me. There's me, the outer, and there's her, the inner. She is like a whole different person. She's open-minded, talkative, and stupid. She hears my every thought, and I hear hers. She helps me out in times of need, and adds annoying comments every other time.

_**'I heard that. Also, you might wanna consider answering Yahiko.'**_ I zoned out on her and tried to remember the question.

'_**He asked what you don't know.'**_ Inner said.

"I don't know what most modern and outside objects and things are. I also don't know how to write or do that eating activity with the four pointy thingy's or how to that thing called… I think it was called 'mant' or something." I answered with a shrug.

"Pointy thingy? You mean eating with a fork? And mant being math?" Yahiko asked as he made a right turn on the road.

"Yeah. Math and fork." I said, turning my head to face out the window next to me.

"Well Sakura, my friends and I could easily teach you how to read and write and eat and do math! My friend's sister is actually a teacher- someone who teaches students/kids how to learn certain things- so she should be a lot of help." Yahiko said with yet another grin. He seems to do that a lot.

"Hn." Was my only reply.

From then on was silence. I had time to think.

What was I doing? I meet a stranger and he decides to help me learn the things I didn't know as a slave? Sure, I'm desperate, but going with someone who I might not be able to trust? I am being an idiot by going along with this.

I sighed. All of this was going to be troublesome.

'_I sound like Shikamaru.'_ I thought.

Shikamaru was another master. He was Denarius' fiancé, but hated her. Shikamaru was always going about how hard and troublesome things were. His two main sentences where 'what a drag' and 'so troublesome'. He was incredibly lazy and didn't care much about anything, yet somehow he had an IQ of four hundred or so.

"We're here. This is my friends house." Yahiko announced as he pulled into another road that seemed fatter and ended at a red wall-like thing.

I opened the door and carefully stepped out, trying not to hurt my feet.

Yahiko came around and walked beside me, holding onto my waist and leading me to the door of the small, one floor house. I was sure to walk on the balls of my feet so the bandages wouldn't get scraped on the ground.

Yahiko opened the door and stepped inside and I followed. As soon as I stepped in I felt the cold of the hardwood floor and instantly wanted to leave. This floor was too much like the floor at Denarius' mansion, where I was held as a slave.

Yahiko walked away and I followed behind him closely, not wanting to get lost.

"Nagato? Konan? You guy's home?" Yahiko called out loudly while trying to find his friends.

I was worried. What if these people hated me or gave me back to Denarius? What if they sent me out on the streets? What if-

'_**Enough of the 'what if's' already! You're giving me a headache, and since we have the same head, then you're going to have a headache as well.'**_ Inner said.

Ah yes, I could always count on inner to cheer me up.

"In the kitchen!" A female voice called. It was soft and melodic. Soothing. Like a bell.

Yahiko moved all the way to the back of the house and turned left into white and light blue room with stained yellow tile flooring, and once again, I followed.

"Oh, who is this?" The female voice asked. I still couldn't see who the voice belonged to, I was hiding behind Yahiko, clutching the back of his shirt in my hands.

"This is Sakura… sort of." Yahiko answered.

"'Sort of'?" The woman asked.

"She doesn't remember her name, or never had one. She used to be a slave, so she was called L-Z-7. Would it be okay for her to stay with us? Also, she doesn't know how to read or write so we would have to teach her that. Would you help?" Yahiko asked, grabbing my arms and pushing me in front of him.

I tried to step back, but only ended up bumping into Ren.

"Of course! Well Sakura, my name is Konan. And that is my brother Nagao. I guess we will be teaching you how to read and write! Don't worry, it'll be easy and a lot of fun!" The woman clapped her hands together.

She was in her late twenties, with blue hair and amber eyes. Her skin was pale and light, like cream. She wore the same thing one of Denarius' friends wore- a pair of blue jeans but she wore them with a red shirt.

The other man in the room was around my age, sixteen, with short black hair and had almost the same eyes as his sister, but his were more ruby colored.

Remembering my manners, I said a quiet hello.

"We don't really have an extra room… but I have bunk beds in my room so you can have the bottom one!" Konan said with a smile.

"The first thing we should do though, it to get you some new clothes! I think I have some of my old clothes that would fit you!" Konan grabbed my arm and dragged me across the hall, into a nice carpeted room.

The walls were dark purple, and the carpet was white. Two beds were stacked on top of each other in the corner- I guess this was the bunk bed. They had light blue pillows on them with light purple sheets and comforter.

"You can have the bottom bunk, the tops mine." Konan said as she opened the wooden door to her closet and dug around in it.

"Aha! This should fit you, here the bathroom is through that door, put in on. I'll be out here if you need anything." The blue-haired woman said, handing me some clothes.

I walked into the bathroom and quickly changed into the clothes I was given, happy to get out of the torn dress.

I looked in the mirror. The clothes she handed me was a black blouse and a black miniskirt. The blouse's sleeves came down to my wrists and the neck cuff thing was folded down. It looked normal, so I shouldn't stand out.

I walked out of the bathroom and thanked Konan for the clothes. She took the torn dress and threw it away.

We walked back down to where Yahiko and Nagato were.

"So she can stay?" Yahiko asked Konan, something similar to hope shining in his eyes.

"Yeah. She may have to help out with some things, but she can still stay." Konan said with a nod.

"Great, so this your home Sakura!" Yahiko ran over to me and hugged me, a huge grin on his face.

My new home? Things here will be troublesome, I just hope I can stay free, but I know Denarius will find me.

I suppose I will be here until then.

Until the next time…

One of the two one-shots I promised, though this MAY NOT BE A ONE-SHOT! If you want me to continue, I will.

Oh, and thinking about starting a small, easy contest. Would you join? Review and say if you would join and what would be a good prize.


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